What is backstory?
We all know it when we see it: the long, boring stretches explaining what happened before the exciting part.
Backstory doesn't have to be boring. Or long.
According to the dictionary, backstory is "the history or background created for a fictional character."
Just like this ancient rock, backstory has an interesting story to tell. It can explain "how" or "why?"
Why does your character hate his best friend? Why did he move from Arizona to San Francisco? Why did he adopt a Rottweiler when he's allergic to dog fur?
The trick with backstory is to avoid "info dumps." Those are the long, boring stretches we want to skip.
Instead we want to weave in backstory in small bits.
Here's a great example from Cynthia Kadohata's novel Kira-Kira, when the main character, Katie, describes her Uncle Katsuhisa.
My uncle was exactly one inch taller than my father. But his stomach was soft. [Here comes the backstory.] We knew this because we hit him in it once the year before, and he yelped in pain and threatened to spank us. We got sent to bed without supper because my parents said hitting someone was the worst thing you could do. Stealing was second, and lying was third. [End of backstory.]
Before I was twelve, I would have committed all three of those crimes.
In your own stories, watch how you weave in backstory.
Do you see big blocks of explaining? Is it absolutely necessary? Can you tell some in dialogue? Or can you weave in 2 or 3 sentences and then get the reader back to the present?
